§ 40. Sir HERBERT NIELDasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether, as it has been recognised that medical personnel, including nurses serving on hospital ships and ambulance transports, are eligible for chevrons by virtue of such service, there is any reason why officers and men forming the personnel engaged in the transport of animals, including remounts for the various fighting fronts, should not be accorded the same privileges, seeing that the nature of their employment involves constant risk of being sunk by mines or torpedoed; and whether he will place these men on the active service list, and allow them to wear the red and blue chevrons and other distinctive badges as have been allowed to other branches of the Service?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONOfficers and men employed in conducting animals are, in common with those engaged in conducting drafts, ineligible for the chevrons in respect of such service. Many individuals whose duties necessitate journeys to and from the various theatres of war are similarly ineligible, and I am afraid it is not practicable to make any exception to this rule. The case of the personnel on hospital ships is not analogous, as such service is of a permanent nature.